PEKIN, Ill. – What remains of the Pekin Township Office building after two walls collapsed earlier this month has been described as “stable.”
An emergency demolition had to be ordered after the west wall of the building collapsed, followed by the south wall the following day while working on the west wall.
The findings of the current state of the building were discussed Friday afternoon by leaders from the city of Pekin, Pekin Township, and engineers.
Pekin City Building Official Nic Maquet says the determination was made after a brief walkthrough by structural engineers, who did not find anything to determine the building would fall.
“From what he could tell with the building was stable,” Maquet said. “That does not mean that there is not issues with the building, or repairs that would have to be made to make it structurally sound.”
Maquet says some of those issues could include code violations that were previously not corrected, as well as some after effects of the demolition of a portion of the building.
Another inspection of the building is scheduled to take place Tuesday morning. Following that, a more detailed report from the engineers and the city will be presented to the township board to help them determine their next steps.
Maquet says the township board could have some tough choices to make.
“Pending on what is found by the structural engineers and the city, the cost of repair could play a part in what their next step of action will be,” Maquet said.
Maquet says cost estimates are not known yet at this time.
